Military told to heed abuse claims
OTTAWA-Canadian military brass were told it was a crime to ignore allegations of prisoner abuse and that it was their duty to investigate it, according to a top secret document revealed to the Toronto Star.
Buried in documents withheld from a special parliamentary committee by the Conservative government, the May 22, 2007 five-page memo from the Judge Advocate General (JAG), Brig.-Gen. Ken Watkin, followed on the heels of a series of media reports and diplomatic dispatches alleging serious prisoner abuse.
Read on to see Richard Brennan and his sources make the point that this memo contradicts the claims of Rick Hillier and others that no one said anything to them about torture. But another question it raises is: what's the justification for keeping this memo from the special committee? Are we to believe that national security is somehow at greater risk now that we know about it?
It's already obvious that prorogation didn't make this story go away.
Update:
I should have scanned the news for a few minutes more before I posted because this from James Travers looks to be even more explosive:
In the winter of 2007, three insurgents captured by Canada's top-secret Joint Task Force Two disappeared into the notorious Afghan prison system. Three years later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament rather than release related documents that raise difficult questions about the role of this country's special forces and spies in targeting, capturing and interrogating key enemies.
There are concerns that the men were either killed or ended up in one of the American "black site" prisons. We may be getting closer to the explanation for the government's attempts to shut down any inquiries into this whole matter.
Do you get the feeling that Travers has seen even more than he can tell us? If there is that kind of missing link in the documents -- JTF2, CSIS, and Ottawa-Washington -- then this is indeed explosive.
So it really is worse than what it first appeared to be (incompetence, confusion, etc). The stonewalling and lies and character assassination suggested that there might be more to hide than we suspected, and so it seems to be.
I think I shall write to Dewar. I don't expect much of Ignatieff, but there are some sharper critics among the opposition.
War crimes trials.
To compromise with these detestable murderers and scum-bags "to make parliament work for Canadians" would be a crime in itself.
Defeat this government. Try the politicians. Cart the guilt off to jail.
JTF2 (&CSIS) definitely deserve a closer look.
In our name? Never!